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Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Update from Sewmotion HQ

It’s amazing how productive you can be after a holiday!
Which is just as well as I have so much on my to-do list right now. I know it
may be a little too early for some, but for us makers Christmas is not too far
away at all, so last week was spent building up some stock for the coming
season. It was so nice to spend three days just sewing with no keyboard in
sight!

I’ve been looking forward to using these Riley Blake fabrics (centre pic), a Doughty’s buy at Festival, and I think these new pencil cases/make-up cases
are so cute! I used shower-proof fabric for the linings that make them easy to
wipe clean, and also adds some body to the case. So we have this new
collection, as well as some others made from ‘the stash’, and of course I had
to make some small pouches to go with them. I’m planning to make some larger
pouches in matching fabrics and selling them as sets, these would make lovely
gifts don’t you think?!

Some items that have been selling well lately are my novelty
pencil cases, so I thought I would make some more, this time a little larger so
they will hold all the ‘stuff’ for school, as well as some large purses. These
will hold cash, cards and keys – ideal for the young at heart.

A friend has been saying for a while that I should
personalise my items, so I decided to try out my embroidery stitches on the
machine, and came up with these lovely name labels, so sweet. These are now an
added option in my Folksy shop.

Having spent three days sewing, it was then time to
photograph and upload everything – wow, this took sooo long! I’m starting to
realise that because I do some many different things, sewing, writing,
photography, website stuff, that I tend to forget how to do things and need to re-teach myself regularly. So when it came to taking the pics and then writing
the blurb on Folksy, my muscle memory took some time to kick in. Three days
later (!) I now have some lovely fresh items on Folksy… though Etsy will have
to wait a while I'm afraid.

Having got all this finished last week, I was glad to start
something new on Monday, and I finally got round to making up some jelly rolls
from my Kona stash.

It has always been my intention to use these gorgeous
cottons in luscious colours to design and make up some quilt kits from
pre-cuts, mainly 2½” fabrics strips and charm squares. The first is a
20-stripper in a lovely rainbow colour scheme – I think the two greys sit in so
well.

This second strip set is actually made up of 21 strips, and
will hopefully be my first kit for this quilt...

I designed this one ages ago, I
think I was actually sitting on a beach in Thailand at the time… useless at
relaxing! Anyway, my brain hurt trying to work out the measurements, so I knew
this one had to be made first before writing the instructions, which is the
plan for the rest of today. I am hoping to get some pre-cuts for sale in my shop soon and will let you know when.

I think I’ve
cracked the fabrics now, that grey background sets off the white really well,
and I love this Louden Flitsy range. I think it may well be a wall hanging with
three dogs, and the words Dog Gone Cute in there somewhere. I’m enjoying
following someone else’s pattern for a change, and Lorna’s is very easy to follow,
though I do find I have to concentrate more than usual with the piecing, but
that’s just me. To join in this quilt-along, pop over to Sew Fresh Quilts where
Lorna is sharing the instructions for the puppy blocks over the next few weeks.
There will then be a Blog Hop in October, which includes me (!) – I’ll let you
know more about that nearer the time.

17 comments:

You certainly HAVE been a busy stitcher! All of those pouches are super sweet and the fabrics are just perfect. You are right.... Christmas is a comin'.... Your puppy block is just so adorable! Love your idea of a wall hanging with the Dog Gone Cute words. Can't wait to see it!

Hi Louisa, thank you so much for your visit today! It's a lovely blog you have here and the personalised cases you shared today are so sweet...but you're making me feel guilty about not even thinking about the C-word yet! I see that you sell your pdf patterns on Etsy and I was wondering how you're finding the new EU VAT regulations? It's something I was planning to do, but the laws seem impossible to overcome for micro businesses that I haven't made a start yet!

Hi Stephie, I'm glad you like my blog, it seems to take me ages to write, so its wonderful when people actually read it and enjoy! I do sell PDFs but so far I've only sold one, and I think that was before the VAT thing came in. It is a pain though as it puts the prices up so much! Recently I have noticed others selling patterns by emailing them to the customers once paid for, this avoids the "automatic download" thing that requires VATMOSS apparently. Etsy does sort all the VATMOSS out, I was recently in Germany and bought a PDF pattern, and was only charged 19% (Germany's VAT) and not 20% (UK's VAT) so it does work, I wouldn't be able to get my head round it otherwise. Sorry I can't be anymore help! Thanks for stopping by, :)

I'm a first time visitor to your blog, coming over from WIP Wednesday. So glad I stopped here. Three days of sewing and you are very productive. You've done so many pretty things, but the one thing I have to know is: how on Earth did you get your jelly rolls folded up so neatly!?! I do not have the knack for folding strips at all. ;)

Hi Heather, nice to meet you and thanks for visiting! I have to say, it took me quite a long time to figure out how to fold the strips... I knew I couldn't do the round thing like others do, but I ended up lying them on top of each other slightly staggered, then turn them over and fold into thirds.. hope that makes sense :) I love your ribbon by the way.

I notice that after long pauses or breaks from being in the sewing room, that it's almost like releasing a caged lion and my creativity is through the roof! That bicyle fabric is just fantastic and those little lables are so adorable! Great WIP's too!

Wow - what a lot you have got done .... Just need to find myself three full days in my studio!!! Love the Kona Rainbow pack - the greys are just right in it. Your little doggy is just gorgeous - so crisp and lovely.